The compound N-[3-chloro-4-[(3-fluorophenyl)methoxy]phenyl]-6-[5[[[2-(methylsulfonyl)ethyl]amino]methyl]-2-furanyl]-4-quinazolinamine (INN: Lapatinib) is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor which dually inhibits the growth factor receptors ErbB1 (epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR) and ErbB2 (HER2). Lapatinib is a member of the 4-anilinoquinazoline class of kinase inhibitors that have been shown to bind to the ATP binding site of protein kinases and compete with the ATP substrate. This blocks receptor phosphorylation and activation, preventing subsequent downstream signalling events.
Lapatinib, in combination with Capecitabine, is indicated for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer whose tumours overexpress ErbB2 (Her2) and who have received prior therapy including trastuzumab.
Lapatinib and its pharmaceutical effects on disorders like cancer are described in WO 1999/035146. Further medical uses of Lapatinib and its salts are inter alia known from WO 2005/120504, WO 2006/002422 and WO 2006/066267.
WO 1999/035146 discloses s process of preparing Lapatinib. According to this and other known manufacturing processes, Lapatinib is obtained as a solid. One of the forms of Lapatinib is its crystalline ditosylate salt as described in WO 2002/002552.
Conventional pharmaceutical Lapatinib formulations for oral administration are disclosed in WO 2006/113649.
Typically, Lapatinib is administered at a dose of 1250 mg once daily. Tablets comprising 250 mg Lapatinib (as ditosylate salt monohydrate) are sold under the brand name Tyverb® (by Glaxo Smith Kline). Thus, the required dosage is comprised in 5 Tyverb® tablets that have to be administered perorally once a day. This situation is unsatisfactory and inconvenient to the patient especially since cancer patients' medications usually consist of multiple drug regimen demanding the administration of large numbers of tablets or capsules where required along with an intravenous therapy. Further, these patients often suffer from nausea and lesions of the oral mucosa. Therefore the peroral application of drugs may be hampered by vomiting fits and swallowing problems. Hence, it would be desirable to facilitate the administration of the cancer patients' daily medication.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved alternative dosage form that is convenient to administer and that contains the whole daily Lapatinib medication in a unit dose.
Thus, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising N-[3-chloro-4-[(3-fluorophenyl)methoxy]phenyl]-6-[5[[[2-(methylsulfonyl)ethyl]amino]methyl]-2-furyl]-4-quinazolinamine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof wherein a unit dose of the composition contains 1200 to 1300 mg of the active pharmaceutical ingredient calculated as the free base.